How to say goodbye in Korean

In our first “How To Say” lesson you learned how to greet someone in Korean, but what do you say when you part ways? There are many different expressions you can use to say goodbye in Korean, and the phrase you choose will depend on the different situations you are in. By the end of this bite-sized lesson, you should know how to use them all!

When saying “goodbye” to someone in the polite form 존댓말, there are two main expressions you need to choose from. The phrase you use depends on whether you are the one staying or the one that’s leaving.

안녕히 가세요

If you are staying and want to say ‘goodbye’ to the person or people that is / are leaving, you use the phrase 안녕히 가세요.

안녕히 means ‘peacefully’, and ‘가세요’ is instructing someone to go, therefore, we can directly translate this phrase as ‘go peacefully’.

안녕히 가세요

Goodbye

안녕히

Peacefully

가세요

Please go

안녕히 계세요

If you are the one leaving, you can say 안녕히 계세요 to the person or people that is / are staying. 계세요 is a command to ‘stay’, so we can translate this as ‘stay peacefully’.

안녕히 계세요

Goodbye

안녕히

Peacefully

계세요

Please stay

안녕

For situations where these farewells may seem a little too polite, you can use the following casual phrases towards your friends or people much younger than you.

안녕

See ya (Peace!)

잘가

Bye (Go well)

잘있어

Bye (Stay well)

On the phone

When hanging up the phone or ending a video call, it is perfectly acceptable to use any of the phrases you’ve just learned. However, some people do not say “bye” to end the conversation. In casual settings, they may say 네 or 응, which both mean “yes” or “I understand.” They might even say 끊을게 which simply means “I am hanging up now.”